House Democrats are going to investigate President Trump’s proposal to hold next year’s G-7 summit at his Doral, Florida, golf resort.
“Hosting the G-7 Summit at Doral implicates both the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses, because it would entail both foreign and U.S. government spending to benefit the President, the latter potentially including both federal and state expenditures,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, and Constitution Subcommittee chair Steve Cohen of Tennessee, said in a statement Wednesday. “More importantly, the Doral decision reflects perhaps the first publicly known instance in which foreign governments would be required to pay President Trump’s private businesses in order to conduct business with the United States.”
Trump signaled earlier this week that the Doral resort, near Miami, would host the event, although White House officials said Wednesday the decision isn’t final and sites in other states are under consideration.
Nadler and Cohen said Trump’s desire to hold the event at Doral show his personal finances are influencing his decisions as president and is further proof he is corrupt.
“The Constitution demands that President Trump’s private interests and official conduct remain separate, and this latest announcement demands scrutiny by Congress,” Nadler and Cohen said.
Nadler said Trump’s Doral comments will be added to the list of alleged misdeeds committed by the president that Democrats are now investigating.
“The Committee will broaden its ongoing investigation to include these latest revelations and will take further investigative steps, including scheduling hearings and requesting additional documents from the White House,” Nadler said.
